As I sit here, I recently learned that OSHA is investigating
one of the Peoria-area facilities under its Recordkeeping National Emphasis
Program. Under this program, OSHA will investigate to determine if work-related
illnesses and injuries have been properly reported to the government by CAT.
Under this program, a variety of information will be requested of the company,
and interviews will be held with employees to determine the accuracy of the
company-maintained illness and injury records. Caterpillar was one of the
“chosen ones”. I know Cat is thinking, “why me”. I can tell you why they were
selected from the masses of business in the U.S…

These injury and illness records are vital in the continuing
efforts to improve health and safety in our facilities. Oftentimes, managers
misguidedly attribute work-related injuries and illnesses to personal failures.
Alternatively, the work-related injuries may be considered impediments in the
quest for improved safety performance metrics. These metrics are actually based
on what are called trailing indicators,
that is, incidents and illnesses that have already occurred. Since the managers
are evaluated for promotion and raises related to their performance on a
variety of metrics including safety, the “kill the messenger” response to
injuries workers report comes as no surprise.

Where does this “kill the messenger” mentality come from? Could
it be our benchmarking peers? BP was one of the companies CAT benchmarked for
its behavioral-based safety initiative. BP is a company that received a
then-record $21 million fine in 2005 from OSHA for safety violations at Texas
City that led to a massive explosion, 19 deaths and 180 injured workers. Four
years later, OSHA hit BP with its largest ever fine, $87.4 million, for failure
to correct hazards they agreed to fix as part of a settlement agreement related
to the Texas City explosion—that’s a great example of a benchmark!

On April 2, an explosion at the Tesoro refinery in
Anacortes, Washington killed seven workers. Like BP, Tesoro is a safety award
winner. Over the year, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association
(NPRA) has granted the Anacortes Refinery numerous prizes– “merit” and
“achievement” and “gold” -- including two awards last year. Tesoro notes on its
web site that this recognition is for reducing “recordable injury rates”– the
lost-time injuries that must be reported to OSHA. There are those safety
metrics again.

Massey Energy, operators of the Upper Big Branch Mine, where
29 miners died in an underground explosion on April 6th, claimed a
number of industry and government safety awards in 2009. The awards were based
on safety metrics such as recordable injuries and lost work days, even though,
according to the Labor Department, Massey has admitted to underreporting their
injuries by more than 30%. It’s not hard to achieve great safety metrics
performance when you don’t count all the injuries. In addition, research done
by the United Mine Workers of America indicated that 52 workers have been
killed on Massey Energy properties in the past decade. How do those metrics and
awards effectively portray a company that has killed so many workers and
amassed hundreds of additional safety violations at the Upper Big Branch mine
since the explosion?

Many companies like BP tout their safety records and their
behavioral-based safety programs, but these “records” and programs are nothing
to be proud of.The day the BP Deepwater
Horizon received a safety award for having no reported lost time injuries for 7
years, a group of BP bigwigs traveled out to the oil rig to celebrate the
safety milestone. When it exploded, they escaped in a helicopter while eleven
workers died and, there was untold environmental damage to the Gulf of Mexico.

Back to our employer…A number of weeks ago, a worker was
attempting to un-jam a piece of equipment, a task he had to perform many times
per shift. He reached over a barrier guard, was caught in the machinery and
suffered broken bones. This worker received disciplinary action for failure to
follow Lockout/Tagout! This response is asinine. First, any guard that can be
reached over, under, around or through is
not a guard. Second, the worker was expected to clear the jammed equipment
and was trained in Lockout/Tagout as an “affected” person, not someone who was
to apply locks and tags to equipment. Third, the new and improved un-jamming
procedure defines, in writing, how to do this non-routine task without locking
out the equipment, and in some cases, the supervisor is required to observe the
operation, effectively becoming a management witness to a clear violation of
the OSHA Lockout/Tagout standard.

Caterpillar has been cited numerous times in the recent past
for Repeat Violations of the Lockout/Tagout Standard, and yet when their
approved procedures fail, resulting in a worker getting injured, what do they
do? Discipline the worker—that is just wrong. If you are disciplined for
reporting an injury or for being hurt doing routine tasks that your supervisor
has direct knowledge that you perform,
contact your Steward, Committeeman or UAW Safety Representative, because the
discipline may be illegal.

Recently, during a start-up meeting, a line supervisor
reportedly informed the people who worked for him that any Supplemental reporting
an injury or illness would place their further employment at risk. Statements
like that or policies that discourage the reporting of injuries are, again, against
the law. Following this incident, a complaint was made to OSHA, and soon
thereafter the supervisor mysteriously disappeared.

If you are a Supplemental or Probationary employee, you are
required to promptly report your injuries to the Medical Department. You should
feel free to do so without fear of retaliation, but we all know the truth. You
are between the proverbial“rock and a hard place”. You may fear for your
job for reporting an injury—or for not reporting the injury, either way, the
fear is the same.

There are a couple of different ways the union can help you in
this situation. One way is for you to let us know where there are hazards in
your work area that you think may injure you. We can intervene on your behalf
and get the problem resolved. The other way is if you file Safety Complaints as
prescribed in section 8.3 of the contract that the company is required to give
you. Under the terms of the contract, you will have protection against
discipline because you have engaged in union activity (one of the two ways the
union can file a grievance on your behalf; the other is personal prejudice).

Have you heard the saying, “Liars figure and figures lie”? Trying
to make improvements without accurate data is like attempting to drive
somewhere you’ve never been without knowing where you are on the map. The data
must be complete and the only way that will happen is if workers do not fear
for their jobs if they report injuries, illnesses or near-misses. If management
really wants to get where they say they want to go regarding health and safety,
shouldn’t they be interested in gathering accurate data?

Employers who purposefully depress the number of injuries
reported or who put policies in place to discourage reporting are actually
putting workers at risk. If you have been discouraged from reporting an injury,
been told your injury was not work-related or disciplined for reporting an
injury or hazard, tell your UAW Safety representatives, and they will take the
appropriate action on your behalf. If you are at the facility being
investigated by OSHA for Recordkeeping and are asked to speak with the
Compliance Officer, ask that your union representative be present and tell your
whole story as it relates to your experience in reporting injuries. Remember,
there has never been an injury or illness where a worker was not exposed to a
hazard. By promptly reporting hazards, injuries and illnesses, you are helping to
protect your brothers and sisters from future incidents.Save yourself-save your fellow
workers-REPORT!